Comedy Garden

"While we were bleeding him, he squealed so loud you'd have thought we were in Comedy Garden." — Trophy slang

A tangle of archways and courtyards packed with taverns, rebuilt in [[Bran Standing-Wind]]'s era and still carrying a strong Kelt flavor. Mostly dead by day, entirely alive after dark — singers, jugglers, actors, and worse. The standard is mediocrity, but genuine talent surfaces here often enough that scouts from the upper city tolerate the dross to find it. The locals attribute the occasional genius to [[Bran Standing-Wind]]'s legendary harp, rumored to be hidden somewhere in the district, waiting for an artist worthy of it. Dominant attitude: Style.

Day: Quiet except for the sound of someone rehearsing badly. Tavern owners sweep their thresholds; Larme's workshop clanks.
Night: The archways glow with torchlight and noise. Every act competes with every other act. Someone, somewhere, is performing something extraordinary and no one in the crowd knows it yet.

Locations

• The Round Tower (Style / Standing Wind) — the Peer's residence, modest and stylish, its spire barely clearing the surrounding rooftops. Administered by the last of the great Montrachet family of Cadwë butlers. Unassuming; easy to miss; which suits the Standing-Wind line.
• Pillory Square (Opportunism / Guild of Usurers) — [[Bran Standing-Wind]] tore down the Markropets' old pillories to create an esplanade for public festivals. Sophet Drahas has since extended his influence over it. Rascals in his employ dominate the area by strength; the most visible enforcer is [[Tokkt]], an ogre of firm habits and simple methods.
• The Meaningful Penitence (Style / Minstrels of Pain) — an old warehouse turned cult hall for the [[Minstrels of Pain]]. The ground floor is the chaotic workshop of [[Larme]], a devoted faithful. The cells and retreat dorms are above. The Minstrels have observed that visitors unconsciously predict future events in their creative work — a rumor that now draws a steady stream of the curious, who come to scrutinize the art hoping to see their own futures in it.
• Rubicund Tower (Style / Magician) — a peculiar school of magic run by [[Wander-World]], a former [[Voyager]], where mages learn spells for entertainment rather than power. The tower has metastasized into a small cluster of workshops, accommodations, and boutiques. The intensive mana use has thinned the boundary with neighboring elemental Realms — Elementals occasionally materialize uninvited, and Cadwës sometimes vanish into other worlds. Free leaguers are a regular call-out.

NPCs

• Sophet Drahas — Guild of Usurers man with a grip on the square; charming and transactional
• [[Tokkt]] — Sophet's ogre enforcer; area muscle
• [[Larme]] — Minstrel of Pain; the workshop's creative engine
• [[Wander-World]] — former Voyager; Rubicund Tower's eccentric director

Hooks

The Harp and the Heir

A wandering musician claims to have found a cipher pointing to [[Bran Standing-Wind]]'s legendary harp. She's right that there's a cipher. What it actually leads to — inside the Round Tower, below Pillory Square, or somewhere the [[Minstrels of Pain]] would very much like to keep private — is the question.

Sucked Away

A well-connected mage-student has disappeared from the Rubicund Tower — not vanished into the street, but gone, mid-performance, before a dozen witnesses. [[Wander-World]] is tight-lipped. The student's family wants answers; the tower wants discretion. The boundary to wherever the student ended up is still thin.

Tomorrow in the Penitence

A [[Minstrels of Pain]] retreatant produced a piece of work that, when decoded, appears to describe a specific assassination — names, place, method — two weeks from now. The Minstrels don't want this in the open. The potential victim doesn't know yet. Someone has to decide what to do with it.

See Also

• Districts — all districts of Cadwallon
• Trophy — the governing fief
• [[Bran Standing-Wind]] · Sophet Drahas · [[Minstrels of Pain]] · [[Wander-World]]